Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/82

 56 HISTORY OF GREECF, Bius ; and his daughter Arete, first to his brother Thearides - next, on the death of Thearides, to Dion. As brotl >er of Aristo- mache, Dion was thus brother-in-law to the elder Dionysius, and uncle both to Arete his own wife and to Sophrosyue the wife of the younger Dionysius ; as husband of Arete, he was son-in-law to the elder Dionysius, and brother-in-law (as well as uncle) to the wife of the younger. Marriages between near relatives (excluding any such connection between uterine brother and sister) were usual in Greek manners. We cannot doubt that the despot accounted the harmony likely to be produced by such ties between the members of his two families and Dion, among the " adamantine chains " which held fast his dominion. Apart from wealth and high position, the personal character of Dion was in itself marked and prominent. lie was of an ener- getic temper, great bravery, and very considerable mental capa- cities. Though his nature was haughty and disdainful towards individuals, yet as to political communion, his ambition was by no means purely self-seeking and egoistic, like that of the elder Dio- nysius. Animated with vehement love of power, he was at the same time penetrated with that sense of regulated polity, and submission of individual will to fixed laws, which floated in the atmosphere of Grecian talk and literature, and stood so high in Grecian morality. He was moreover capable of acting with en- thusiasm, and braving every hazard in prosecution of his own convictions. Born about the year 408 u. c., 1 Dion was twenty-one years of age in 378 u. c., when the elder Dionysius, having dismantled Khegium and subdued Kroton, attained the maximum of his do- minion, as master of the Sicilian and Italian Greeks. Standing high in the favor of his brother-in-law Dionysius, Dion doubtless took part in the wars whereby this large dominion had been acquired ; as well as in the life of indulgence and luxury which prevailed generally among wealthy Greeks in Sicily and Italy, and which to the Athenian Plato appeared alike surprising anJ 1 Dion vras fifty-five years of age at the time of his death, in the Ccnrth year after his departure from Peloponnesus (Cornelius Nepos, Dion, c. 10). His death took place s semingly about 354 u. c. He would thus bo bom about 408 B C.